Easter and the Power of Redemption
Do you know that there are two ways of looking at the death and resurrection of Jesus? From a human perspective, Easter proclaims the good news that our Redeemer lives! From the Lord’s perspective, Jesus’s death and resurrection were the price God paid to purchase a group of people—you and me—called “the redeemed” (see Hebrews 12:23 AMPC). God has always desired to redeem fallen man.
Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage is a beautiful picture of the way God works to redeem His people. “I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments” (Exodus 6:6). The Israelites had been in Egypt for almost 400 years—through no fault of their own. Jacob and his whole family had moved there at Joseph’s invitation. Eventually, however, Joseph died, the Pharaoh who ruled during Joseph’s lifetime died, and circumstances turned against the Israelites.
Has it ever seemed to you that you were in bondage to a certain habit or situation for the longest time? There comes a point when God says, “I’m going to get you out!” Jesus wants to redeem you out of those circumstances. To redeem means many things, a few of which are: “to break off,” “to deliver,” “to free by paying a ransom.” That’s what God wants to do for you and me. He wants to set us free from bondage so that we can walk in resurrection life—living victoriously every day.
Redemption for the Guilty
Have you ever thought, Well, I got myself into this mess. I’ll just have to get myself out of it? It’s easy for us to believe that God will redeem us when we’re innocent victims of oppression. But when the bondage is our own fault, we sometimes think God is going to sit back and watch us squirm to get free. But He doesn’t! Look what happened to Israel: after God set them free from bondage to Pharaoh, they eventually turned their backs on Him and were taken into Assyrian and Babylonian captivity.
God could have said, “Tough luck! You’re guilty. Get yourselves out of this one!” But He didn’t. He said, “And they shall call them The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; And you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken” (Isaiah 62:12). The Jews had blown it—they had forsaken the Lord—and were led away as captives. But God still considered them “the redeemed.” After they had repented, God brought them back into the promised land. God will also bless you if you repent and turn back to Him.
Always remember, you are the redeemed of the Lord (see Isaiah 51:11). When we look at the events of Easter, we see that we have a Redeemer who lives eternally. Because of Easter, as the redeemed, we can enjoy the power and benefits of redemption eternally.
When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, the Bible says He did it with “an outstretched arm and with great judgments” (Exodus 6:6). It took only one arm to redeem the Israelites. But in the New Testament, we see that it took two outstretched arms on the cross to redeem all mankind from sin. Your redemption took both outstretched arms of Jesus, didn’t it? By that act, Jesus redeemed you from your past, your present, and your future. That’s the good news of Easter!
Kinsman Redemption
Redemption includes one other aspect that will help you. This aspect is found in the Old Testament book of Ruth. Do you remember Ruth’s beautiful story? Originally a woman named Naomi and her husband left Bethlehem with their two sons. They traveled to Moab (which was a cursed place due to the idolatry and incestuous roots of the Moabites), and Naomi’s husband and two sons eventually died. The sons had married Moabite girls, and one of them, Ruth, chose to return to Bethlehem with Naomi. Ruth also chose Naomi’s God (see Ruth 1:16), so she was a believer; redeemed, delivered, bought, and set free. But she was about to experience the fuller meaning of redemption during her stay in Bethlehem!
Ruth began to glean barley in the field of a rich man named Boaz. But this wasn’t just any rich man. It just so happened that Boaz was a relative of Ruth’s dead husband, and Mosaic law made it the duty of the next-of-kin to marry the widow and raise up children in the dead man’s name. Boaz desired to marry Ruth; but in order to marry her, he first had to prove his family ties to her dead husband, buy back the land that used to belong to her husband, and be willing to raise his children under the name of Ruth’s dead husband. This was called the law of the kinsman redeemer.
The Hebrew word for redeemer is “ga’al” and it is translated 18 times as “redeemer,” 14 times as “kinsman,” and six times as “avenger.”
Jesus is all of these things to you and me. Jesus is our kinsman. He emptied Himself of His divinity and came down to earth clothes in humanity. In order to be your “relative” and to understand where you are coming from, He had to be tempted in all ways. Then He died for you. He shed His own blood for you. Those who are born again belong the Father. Jesus became your kinsman redeemer.
Another thing that the kinsman did in the Old Testament was to seek revenge on anyone who hurt his relatives. Jesus does the same for you. When the enemy comes against you, “The Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). Jesus took vengeance upon death itself. The book of Hebrews states:
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV)
Do you remember the story of Cain and Abel in the book of Genesis? Gain murdered Abel out of jealousy. But God came to Cain and told him, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). He then avenged Abel’s death by cursing Cain. In the New Testament we are told that the blood of Jesus speaks of better things than the blood of Abel.
You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:23-24 NIV)
This means that Jesus’s blood speaks to the Father and says that you are redeemed, delivered, bought, set free, and that you are a very close relative!
Activating Your Redemption
What does this mean for our life? Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy.” If Christ is your living Redeemer and you are the redeemed, then you need to say what God says about you!
God says you are free, whole, healthy, prosperous, joyous, wise, forgiven, and much, much more! That’s what you should be saying about yourself. If ever there was a man you had a right not to say he was redeemed, it was Job. But look at what he said:
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God. (Job 19:25-26)
Job said, “If I die and worms destroy my body, I will still stand and see my Redeemer at the latter day upon the earth!” No matter how bad it looked in the natural for Job, he had a Redeemer, he was redeemed, and he spoke it!
You need to know the benefits of redemption, and the power of confessing them for yourself. Psalm 103:1-4 tells us the redeemed have all their sins forgiven, their diseases healed, and their lives saved from destruction! You and I have all the benefits of the redeemed because Jesus stretched out both of his arms on the cross for us. He redeemed us with outstretched arms.
There is nothing you can do to earn this redemption. Jesus redeemed you when you were innocent, and He redeemed you when you were guilty. He redeemed you from sickness, and He is your avenger upon the devil. But there is one thing the Bible says you are to do, and it’s found in Ephesians 5:16: you are to redeem the time because the days are evil.
Redeem the time by what you say with your mouth. Do you spend your time whining and gossiping? From now on, redeem your time by speaking what God says about you and about your situation! Pray with me, and let’s begin redeeming our time right now.
Heavenly Father, I know that my Redeemer lives. I am delivered, loosed, set free, bought back from bondage, and a very close relative to Jesus, who is my avenger upon the devil! From now on, Lord, everyone will know that my Redeemer lives because I am going to say so! Amen.
If you’d like additional prayer, call 888-637-4545, or visit https://marilynandsarah.netviewshop.com/prayer.